Kevin Diestel

Partner

Based in London, UK

About Kevin

Kevin joined Sapphire in 2012 and focuses his time primarily on innovative consumer businesses and vertical software applications. He looks for large spaces, clear value propositions, and great teams to execute behind them. Kevin has sat on the boards of over a dozen companies in his career. He currently holds a board seat (either director and observer) at ConvercentCulture AmpCurrentDegreed, GitGuardian, project44, and Sun Basket. He also led the firm’s investment BetterUp, and worked on investments in AvidXchange, Cazoo and Yapily.

Kevin previously worked on Sapphire’s investments in 23andMe (NASDAQ: ME), Fitbit (NYSE: FIT), Inkling (acquired by Marlin Equity Partners), Integral Ad Science (NASDAQ: IAS), Jibe (acquired by iCIMS), Kaltura (NASDAQ: KLTR), Socrata (acquired by Tyler Technologies), and Vendavo (acquired by Francisco Partners).

Before joining Sapphire Ventures in 2012, he worked at Shamrock Capital Advisors, a Los Angeles-based growth private equity firm, where he evaluated investments in the media, entertainment and communications sectors. Prior to his private equity career, Kevin worked at Merrill Lynch in its investment banking division in Los Angeles.

Kevin holds an MBA from Stanford University and received the Ernest C. Arbuckle Award for contributing most to the fulfillment of the goals and integrity of the school. He received a bachelor’s in business economics and graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, Los Angeles.

+ show more - show less

Focus Areas

  • Consumer tech
  • Vertical SaaS
  • SaaS
  • HR Tech
  • Supply chain & logistics
  • Fintech
  • API
  • Infrastructure

Kevin doesn’t just make financial investments, he invests in the growth, success, and more importantly the people of his portfolio companies.

Jett McCandless

CEO and Founder, project44

investments

  • AvidXchange

    AvidXchange is an industry leader in automating invoice and payment processes for mid-market businesses. Processing $140 billion transactions annually across a network of 680,000+ suppliers transforming the way 6,000 customers pay their bills.

    NASDAQ: AVDX
  • 23andMe

    23andMe is the leading consumer genetics and research company with a mission is to help people access, understand and benefit from the human genome.

    NASDAQ: ME
  • BetterUp

    BetterUp is the global leader in mobile-based professional coaching, counseling and mentorship. BetterUp combines coaching with AI technology and behavioral science to deliver personalized behavior change at scale, improving the wellbeing, adaptability and effectiveness of the workforce.

    CEO: Alexi Robichaux

  • Cazoo

    Cazoo’s mission is to transform the way people buy used cars in the UK by providing better selection, transparency, convenience and peace of mind.

    NYSE: CZOO

    IPO 2021

  • Convercent

    Founded on the idea that enhanced insight enables more effective oversight of an organization’s compliance program, Convercent’s cloud-based, integrated compliance management suite pairs a refreshingly intuitive user interface with natively integrated reporting and analytics.

    Acquired by OneTrust (2021)

  • Culture Amp

    Culture Amp makes it easy to collect, understand and act on employee feedback.

    CEO: Didier Elzinga

  • Current

    Current is a leading U.S. challenger bank serving the needs of people who have been overlooked by traditional banks. Current’s mission is to improve financial outcomes and is committed to providing faster and better access to money with early direct deposits, free overdraft, points for cash back and access to free ATMs.

    CEO: Stuart Sopp

  • Degreed

    Degreed is the workforce upskilling platform for one in three Fortune 50 companies. Degreed integrates and curate all the resources people use to learn — including learning management systems and millions of courses, videos, articles, books, and podcasts. Then it uses behavioral and data science to analyze everyone’s skills to automatically personalize career development based on their jobs, strengths, and goals.

    CEO: Dan Levin

  • IEX

    IEX Group is on a mission to build fairer markets. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in New York City, IEX Group introduced its first trading venue in 2013 and launched the Investors Exchange (IEX), an independent U.S. stock exchange, in 2016. IEX listed its first public company, Interactive Brokers, on October 5, 2018.

    CEO: Bradley Katsuyama

  • Inkling

    Inkling Systems is a learning enablement platform designed for the frontline. Inkling brings together learning and doing to improve the employee experience from day one and every day after that by delivering mobile, effortless access to the training and resources they need to be successful in their role.

    Acquired by Marlin Equity Partners (2018)

  • Jibe

    Jibe builds SaaS recruiting solutions that enable leading companies to hire the best talent, regardless of their existing systems. We are dedicated to making recruiting simple with solutions for enterprises to attract and engage candidates using the latest technology. 

    Acquired by iCIMS (2019)

  • Kaltura

    Kaltura’s mission is to power any video experience. Kaltura has emerged as the fastest growing video platform with the broadest use cases and appeal. Kaltura is deployed globally in thousands of enterprises, educational institutions, media companies, and service providers and engages hundreds of millions of viewers at home, at work, and at school.

    NASDAQ: KLTR

    IPO 2021

  • project44

    project44 is the world’s leading advanced visibility platform for shippers and third-party logistics firms. The company connects, automates, and provides visibility into key transportation processes to accelerate insights and shorten the time it takes to turn those insights into actions. Leveraging the power of the cloud-based project44 platform, organizations are able to increase operational efficiencies, reduce costs, improve shipping performance, and deliver an exceptional Amazon-like experience to their customers.

    CEO: Jett McCandless

  • Sun Basket

    Sun Basket is a healthy meal kit delivery service offering easy, delicious recipes and fresh organic ingredients delivered weekly. Sun Basket makes it easy to cook delicious meals, eat clean, and feel great.

    Acquired by Intelligent Foods (2021)

  • Tradewind

    Tradewind Markets has built a technology platform for digitizing the ownership and trading of physical assets. The Tradewind solution combines the world-class exchange technology of IEX, the fair, simple and transparent stock exchange with a blockchain application tailored for precious metals.

    Acquired by Wellfield Technologies (2023)